A Simple Evening Out
by Lucinda
Summary: AtSHP. slightly Au Cordelia woke up from her coma, and went to England. All she wanted was a simple evening out...


Author: Lucinda  
  
Rating: pg/pg13?  
  
Main character: Cordelia  
  
Disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to anyone form BtVS/A:tS or the Harry Potter novels.  
  
Distribution: Jinni, OADNT, Paula – anyone else please ask first.  
  
Note: after the Conner erasure, somewhat AU. After year 7 for the HP side.  
  
Cordelia sighed, wondering just what was wrong with her. There had been some sort of accident, and she'd been in a coma... It was all blurry. Every time she tried to remember the accident or what she'd been doing right beforehand, she drew only fuzzy confusion. She hated that sort of fuzziness in her memories.  
  
Even stranger were the changes that she had missed. Angel had somehow gained control of Wolfram and Hart, Fred had this triangle thing with Gunn and one of the research guys at the law firm, and Wesley... where had Wesley gone anyhow? She didn't know, and nobody else seemed to know either.  
  
The whole thing was a mess that she didn't want to deal with. Packing her bags, she decided to take a vacation. Somewhere far away from Los Angeles and Sunnydale both. In the end, she ended up booking a ticket to London, England. There was culture, and shopping, and she didn't have to know any foreign languages.  
  
Of course, British television was just... either dull or weird. What fun was it to watch a soap opera where you had no clue who anybody was, or why you should care? British comedy was rather different, and... well... It was just different. But it left plenty of time to try to hit the local clubs. Especially since the shops all seemed to close absurdly early.  
  
She was dancing, enjoying the fact that here, nobody knew about her past. Nobody knew about her parents, nobody knew what she'd been like in high school, nobody knew that she'd been a failing actress or a seer for a vampire. It was a liberating feeling.  
  
"Mind if I dance with you?" The cool voice held an upper class accent, one that oozed money and power and influence.  
  
Glancing over her shoulder with a smile, Cordelia saw a young man that had an astonishing resemblance to Spike. No eyebrow scar, and no darker roots, but the resemblance was most shocking. "You... Sure, why not dance?"  
  
"Is there something wrong? You keep looking at my eye." He was smirking just a little as he danced with her, his movements graceful and confident.  
  
"You remind me of someone else that I've encountered. Pale hair, arrogantly confident, similar smirk... but he's got blue eyes, and a scar right here." Cordelia reached out, touching his eyebrow.  
  
"An ex of yours?" He asked, somehow seeming so much closer than he'd been a moment before.  
  
"No." Cordelia smiled, considering the implausibility of that. "He was more of an enemy, actually. Quite the bad boy."  
  
"I can be quite the bad boy myself." He murmured, gazing into her eyes. "And the name's Draco."  
  
"I bet you can." She murmured.  
  
"Why not step over to the patio for a breathe of air?" He tugged her towards a door without waiting for an answer, his expression arrogantly confident.  
  
Cordelia just arched an eyebrow as she followed, wondering what was up with him. He had a pulse, so he wasn't a vampire. Not that that made him safe... The patio was less crowded, and the air felt good.  
  
Right up to the moment where her skull contracted with vivid images of men in dark robes and little wands. They were attacking a building, something with badly dressed mannequins in the windows. A dark greenish cloud rose up, looking like a skull and snake, matching the mark on the arm of one robed figure.  
  
"Are you alright?" His hand was at her elbow, trying to help her up from the concrete.  
  
Cordelia couldn't even remember falling. "Umm... no. Who..." She looked around, trying to figure out who to call for something like that. She doubted that English police were equipped to deal with evil wizards.  
  
"I could have sworn you looked like you were having fit, or..." Draco paused, and he looked at her, his eyes narrowing. "Was that a vision?"   
  
"Technicolor skull splitting vision, yes. Who do you call in London about evil wizards with smoky clouds?" She let him help her to her feet, rubbing at her temple.  
  
"Don't worry, we'll take care of it." Draco smiled, patting her hand. "Where was this happening? What did you see?"  
  
"A group of people in dark robes, maybe six of them? They had little sticks, and they were shooting light at this building with badly dressed mannequins in the front. This sort of green cloud was over them, like a skull with a snake. One of the robe guys had a mark like it on his arm. Right bout there." She reached out, laying her finger over his arm.  
  
"Death Eaters." Draco sighed, and handed her a slightly bent card with a number on it.. "I'll have to go deal with this. Maybe I can tell you how it goes tomorrow, over lunch?"  
  
"Sounds good." Cordelia smiled. "I'll look forward to hearing about it."  
  
Maybe London wouldn't be too different after all. And Draco was definitely cute.  
  
end A Simple Evening Out 


End file.
